I Don't Understand Why You Always Push Me Away
by 13AMinwonderland
Summary: Competing in the Dark Tournament, Akura Yoshida and her teammates are there for one reason, and one reason only. Kill Team Toguro. Each member of their team has a reason to want to kill the Toguros. But when she meets Hiei, her plans change.
1. Chaos and Disorder

Akura was laying down, alone, outside. For once it was actually clear enough where she could see the stars. As she stared at the vast sky, her mind raced. She was trying to avoid the one thought she knew everyone was depending on her to think about. Instead of facing it, she thought of the time she was a small girl, who would try to count as many stars as she could. Akura smiled to herself and began to count the stars above her. 235...236...237...

"Akura?" A man's voice whispered. She chuckled, recognizing the deep, raspy voice. Slowly sitting up, she came face to face with her long time friend.

"Hey Juro." The wolf-demon grinned, sitting next to his teammate.

"Did you think about it?" He asked, staring blankly at the stars. Akura frowned, wanting to avoid it, but knew it was impossible.

"No, not really." She paused, "But I guess I don't have a choice. You all seem dead set on going. And...I can't you kill yourselves." Juro gave a loud laugh.

"I think we'd manage fine without you." Akura smirked,

"You keep telling yourself that."

~Six Months Later~

The team waited patiently for their ship to arrive. Akura looked around at the other teams, "Easy competition." She smirked smugly. Mira, who was the only other girl on the team, laughed. She was once the princess of the fish demons; being part water demon gave her more of a human form, minus the light blue skin she had.

"Their spirit energy is so weak." Juro interrupted Mira,

"If they're all like this, we'll be fighting and killing Toguro in no time!" His ears pointed as he folded his arms and grinned eagerly. Koichi gave a light chuckle. His pitch black eyes roamed around the crowds of beasts.

"I heard the guest team this year is very strong. Apparently, there are three humans in that group as well." He said as he tightened his gloves, hiding the holes in his hands. Being a spider demon, who is also part human, makes Koichi's powers sometimes uncontrollable. He was the weakest of them all.

Finally, Atsushi, probably one of the strongest air demons in the world, spoke in a soft English accent,

"Then we shouldn't take them lightly," his paused for a brief moment and looked around, as if trying to find the group of strong fighters, then continued again, "They're here for a reason."

"Yeah! Probably to practice on!" Juro laughed arrogantly, "No matter how hard humans trains, they will never be as strong as a demon." Akura laughed at her overly confident friend.

"Juro, don't get too cocky. Atsushi has a point. They are here for a reason; they must be powerful." Mira replied.

"We should look into this." Akura whispered, "We'll look for them on the island since they clearly aren't here." She grimaced, "Just low-level demons."

Before long, the ship appeared out of the dank mist. Eager demons howled with excitement, speaking of how they were going to devour the humans and claim the prize. Akura snickered at this,

"Poor fools. Have no idea what kind of monsters they are up against."

Waiting for their turn to get on the ship, there was a sharp, painful gasp in front of Akura. Turning to find the source of it, her eyes widened at the sight of Koichi's arm, which was slashed open and bleeding. She grabbed his arm and looked over at Mira,

"Can you heal this?" Mira walked over and took his arm, carefully examining it,

"The gash is deep, but it's healable." Slowly raising her arm, her hand turned blue and his wound gradually began to close.

Juro growled in anger as Atsushi patted Koichi's back,

"Who did this to you?" Koichi scanned the groups of creatures.

"He's gone. Probably on the boat."

"Then we'll get him there." Akura smirked evilly. Mira finished healing Koichi's arm and grinned,

"You're all healed up. Not even a scar!" Mira smiled warmly at the man, who blushed and quickly responded,

"Thank you, Mira." And pulled his arm way from her. Finally being able to get on the boat, a tall, skinny and sickly looking elder demon approached to the front of the captain's deck,

"Ay, welcome world's greatest scum!" He greeted. Monsters began to cheer and holler as Team Kobayashi kept their composure, watching the captain in silence. "Now, we be heading to Hanging Neck Island for the tournament. But first..." He paused and gave a sick, evil grin to the crowd, relieving his rotted and missing teeth, "Think of this as the semi-finals. The last group alive is the group that goes to the island!" Creatures around us began claiming things like,

"It's gonna be easy! Rip these idiots apart and eat what ever is left!" Juro shook his head, laughing.

'Now! Pick one of ye teammates and have 'em come up to the front of the captain's deck!" When Akura had looked around, teams had already picked out their biggest and strongest fighters to the front of the deck. The only thought on the groups mind was , '_Who gets the pleasure of ripping these assholes to shreds?_' They all gazed at each other and said,

"Mira." Mira smiled with devilish delight.

"My pleasure."

"Yeah! Show 'em how real women fight!" Akura grinned happily. Mira smiled at her friend and walked towards the group of men. Her being so small compared to these huge demons, she was easy to miss.

"Has every team sent a person to the front?" The captain waited a minute and looked around to confirm that everyone had, "...Good!" He walked over to the edge of the deck, once more, and pressed one of the many buttons in front of him. Immediately, the boat began to shake violently and the deck began to separate. All the teammates in the front parted as the floor continued to open. Finally, a stage emerged from the hole in the ship.

"This is where ye be fightin'! Go up the stairs and I'll tell you when to begin."

As everyone started climbing up the stairs, Koichi brushed Akura's back,

"I'll be right back."

"Umm…okay?" She blinked as she watched the spider demon head to Mira.

Koichi approached the woman and whispered in her ear,

"That's the demon there." He pointed to a rather large reptile-like demon. "The one that wounded me." An evil smile formed on Mira's soft, innocent face.

"Then he's the first I take out." Mira slowly approached the stair and made her way to the battle arena.


	2. A Change of Views

Akura watched Mira slowly climb up the stairs behind the other various demons. If she won, which she would most defiantly do, they would be the official 17th team to be apart of the Dark Tournament. Akura smiled at this. Her dream was that much closer. She was going to destroy Toguro. Although, she promised herself she'd try not to get cocky, strong teams would be there and fight harder than they had ever had to, just to win the 'amazing' prize. But, her team was just as, if not more, powerful. And Mira was about to prove that.

Mira had finally made her way to the top of the arena. Being annoyed by being in a crowd, she pushed her way past everyone and took a stand in the middle of the stage. She gazed over the crowd of monsters, looking for the reptile who harmed her friend.

"Eh? What's this?" Some sort of feline demon had finally noticed the lady in front of him. "A woman... A dainty woman?" He began to snort and laugh as the other men noticed the female in front of them,

"Seriously? Sweetie, go get one of your guy teammates. You can't fight us all!" A horned giant yelled, Mira just smirked.

"No! If she want to fight, let's just rip her to shreds!" Another creature spoke up. Mira's smirk was now replaced with a sinister grin,

"Oh yes. Please tear me to shreds! Rip out my organs and feast on my heart!" She shouted with the utmost giddiness. "Come on! Attack me! All at once! Kill me if you dare!" Luckily, and to her surprise, the first one to jump into action was the one who hurt Koichi.

"Al'ight!" The captain butted in, "Rip into the lassie in a minute! I gotta go over tha rule with ye!" The demons quieted down to heart him, "First o' all, there ain't no rules for tha fightin'! But DO NOT damage me ship. She's my pride and joy, she is." He stopped and looked at the crowd with weary eyes, trying to see if they understood. Mira merely nodded her head to show she understood the terms. "Well, right then... FIGHT!" He yelled.

Mira giggled as the reptile came lounging forward to strike her. But with a flip of her hair and a certain wave of her hand, the man vanished and all that was left, was a puddle of water. Monsters had taken a step back and stared at the at the beautiful creature in front of them. Mira giggled once more,

"Trust me," she lifted her arm into the air with her palm out, "That was a lot more painful for him than it appeared." She smiled viciously as the puddle of water rose from the ground and shot to her hand, forming a trident. "You see," she began to go into detail, "It was very hard to keep up with what was happening, but that man was completely turned inside out, all bones and muscles melted away, organs were turned to dust and the only thing that was left was his water content." Her eyes looked over the crowd, and a happy smile formed when she saw the terror, "So, would any of you like to take me now?" The men looked at each other, not really knowing if it was a good idea to attack or not. They all stared back at Mira, "Is that a 'no'? Well then, that's good. It makes it a lot more easier on me and a lot less painful for you all." She slowly pointed her trident towards the crowd, the tips began to glow blue with her spirit energy. "Fangs of the Loch Ness Monster!" Her voice screamed. The beams shot out of the weapon like a gun then slowly started to form the creature from the deep, devoured the remaining creature, completely ending the fight. The other teammates of the dearly departed stared up at Mira.

"Well...safe to say they ain't comin' back. The Kobayashi Team will be tha 17th team to go to the island!" Announced the captain.

"WHOOO! GIRL POWER!" Akura yelled and started doing a victory dance.

"I don't think so, girly." Captain grinned smugly, "Ye still got angry teammates to deal with." Akura immediately stopped dancing and turned to see smirking demons approaching. Mira jumped down from the arena and rejoined her group. Juro began to crack his knuckle and neck.

"Let's get this over with."

The Urameshi Team had already arrived from their tedious boat ride, while their team leader was still asleep. Holding tightly to their things, they approached the entrance of the seemingly-nice hotel. Inside, the group was greeted by a younger man.

"Please," he began with his arms reached out, intending to take their luggage, "Allow me to show you to your gentlemen's rooms." Kuwabara grimaced as he supported Yusuke.

"I don't know about this place." He glanced around, "I don't trust grown ups who dress this nice." Hiei scoffed at Kuwabara's words. He knew these people wouldn't do anything to harm them. Why take out the entertainment? But...he didn't trust them. To him, all humans in the black market were as bad as Tarukane. He shook his head, before getting angered by the memories , and continued to follow his group.

When they reached their room, which was almost at the top level of the hotel, the man who had brought them there and left their luggage at the front of the door and placed the keys on top of the bags. Kurama grabbed the keys and unlocked the door, letting everyone in. The room was fairly decent. There was a window in the living room that faced the battle arena, two couches facing each other, one coffee table, and two halls leading into two different bed rooms. Hiei wondered into one of the beds to examine it. It was nice. There was a rather large window facing the docks, a queen size bed and a night stand. Hiei smirked, he knew he'd be in one of the windows later, staring at the gloomy scenery. Once he rejoined the men, there was complementary coffee on the table. He sat next to Kurama and reached for a cup. Kuwabara eyed the innocent, little cup suspiciously.

"I think it's poisoned." He ruffled through his backpack and pulled out a soda can. "I'm sticking with the trusty aluminum!" Hiei rolled his eyes and continued to enjoy his coffee, when Kurama spoke,

"Why is there only one coffee cup left?"

"Duh," Kuwabara stopped downing his soda, "because it's mine. I didn't want it, remember?"

"Yes… but then there should be two. One for you, and one for Yusuke." Kuwabara gasped and they all began to look around when they all spotted a little boy sipping Yusuke's coffee. The boy smiled mischievously and began to tell the team that his name was Rinku and that he was on the Rokuyukai Team, which was the team they would fight the following day. Little after, a man in the corner spoke up, acknowledging his presences. Ziro was the team leader of the Rokuyukai Team.

After they took their leave, and demonstrating Ziro's power by splitting Kuwabara's unwanted coffee cup in half, it was completely silent; minus Yusuke's snoring. Hiei stared at the severed cup and decided there was no need for him to be in the room anymore.

"I'm going to bed. Don't bother me unless another team shows up here." He placed his coffee cup back on the table and headed towards the room he had previously checked out. Locking the door, he went to the window and comfortably sat on the sill. He wasn't exactly planning to sleep in the first place, but the others didn't need to know that. He just wanted to watch the docks, hoping that maybe another team would show up. He leaned his back completely against the window and stared at the trees.

An hour went by and the sun was almost fully down. Hiei had been only watching the trees sway back and forth. He began contemplating if he should actually go to sleep, but he just sighed and a small smile formed on his usually hard face. He was comfortable right where he was. It was so peaceful outside. With the dim light from hotel and the remaining light from the sun, the leaves on the trees had formed shadows on themselves. It was beautiful to him. He placed his hands behind his head and stared at the top of the window, closing his eyes.

"I guess we were the last ones to get here." He whispered, slightly disappointed. Hiei enjoyed seeing the competition. And as he was about to slip away into sleep, a loud growl came from outside,

"Damn it, Atsushi! Get away from me!" Hiei got up and stared at the group of the new and last arrivals.


	3. The Horrid Man

Atsushi was flying around Juro's head like an annoying bug.

"I swear. I'm going to kick your ass if you don't knock it off! I'm still all fired up from that massacre we just laid on the ship!" The team began to laugh as Juro flexed his manly muscles.

"God, Juro! We all know where your brains went now!" Atsushi grinned playfully,

"Yeah, Juro! Put it away!" Akura smirked.

"Oh, Akura!" Juro approached her and continued to flex, "You know you like it."

"I really don't." She said, trying to contain her laughter, then flicked his nipple.

"Ow!" He whimpered and backed off and held his chest, "My man parts were violated!"

"Oh, whatever!" Akura finally broke down laughing with the rest of her friends.

After regaining her composer, unlike everyone else, she began to walk towards the hotel. Almost to the doors, Akura stopped. She had this creeping sensation that someone was watching her. She looked towards the trees, not really knowing where the suspicious eyes were hiding. After not finding anyone, she looked up at the windows of the hotel, scanning each individual window. Finally, on the far left corner, she spotted a spiky-haired man, sitting in the sill of the window, staring intently at her. Akura blinked, not really knowing if he was a threat or not, but then just did what she normally did when people stared at her. She smiled and shyly waved at the man, who only continued to stare. For some reason, this made Akura frustrated. She felt that it was rude to not at least acknowledge her wave. _'Fine! Two can play at this staring game!'_ And thus, the staring match was under way.

So, she stood there and stared. Even after her teammates had already gone into the hotel.

Akura couldn't bring herself to look away. No matter what the competition was, she always felt as though she needed to win. It was just the stubbornness inside her. Finally, the boy moved from the window. Akura's eyes widened,

"HELL NO!" She yelled and pointed at the window, her elf-like ears perking up, "YOU CAN'T JUST WALK AWAY!...fine. BUT THAT MEANS I WON, JERK-OFF!"

"Akura...?" Her eyes ripped away from the window and looked at the door of the hotel. Mira's head was peaking from the entrance. "Who are you yelling at?" She asked curiously, looking around. Akura glanced back up at the window to make sure the man was really gone. Once she confirmed it, she just smirked and stared back her friend,

"No one important." She headed in behind Mira. Everyone had already gone to the room. As they made their way up, they walked past a child and a blonde-haired man,

"I don't understand why that boy slept through our visit. Did he know we weren't going to attack them?" The child smugly smirked,

Don't worry, Ziro. I think he was just an idiot, anyway"

"Perhaps..." Ziro walked with his arms folded across his chest and stared at the floor. Akura found no importance in their conversation and stopped listening in.

"Ugh! Where's the room? All the way up to the top?" She whined like a baby,

"No, Akura." Mira said in a motherly tone, "We're almost there." And as she said, they were there in five minutes.

"Where've ya been, 'Kura?" Juro asked when the girls walked in, drinking a cup of coffee.

"I was outside. I want coffee!" Akura jumped onto the couch, snatched the coffee from the table and downed it. Mira just smiled from the door,

"I'm going to bed. I'll see you all in the morning." She waved and headed to a unoccupied room.

"When do we fight?" Akura asked as she threw the cup back on the table and food some food to stuff in her face.

"Don't know yet." Koichi said, sipping his coffee.

"I heard the Urameshi Team was fighting tomorrow." Juro grinned.

"So?" Akura stuffed an egg roll into her mouth, "What makes them so special?"

"That's the team with the humans on it." Atsushi said, still floating.

Akura stopped eating and looked at him,

"Who are they fighting?" She blinked. All the boys shrugged. "Oh... Well, right. Doesn't matter, I guess. Maybe I'll go watch a little bit of the fight tomorrow."

_'That girl is powerful..._' Hiei thought as he went to lie on his bed.

_**'But she was kind.' **_He growled at his thoughts,

"Like that matters in a competition. It will only get her killed faster. Baka onna."

A soft knock came from Hiei's bedroom door. "What?" He spoke, not hiding his annoyance.

"It's me." Kurama's gentle voice spoke from behind the door. Hiei sighed, got up and locked the door for the fox demon.

"There was a woman outside, screaming at one of the windows close to yours. Did you happen to see her?" Hiei smirked,

"Yes, I did."

"Was she yelling at you?" Hiei's eyes widened. Should he just tell Kurama the truth or lie? It wasn't that big of a deal, and Kurama didn't need to know.

"No. She wasn't." He rested back down on his bed, staring at the cottage cheese ceiling.

"So, we are fighting tomorrow. It should be interesting."

"Hmm, they aren't weak." Hiei said, closing his eyes.

"Well, I will let you sleep. We all need it. I will see you in the morning." And with that, Kurama was gone, closing the door behind him. Hiei just rolled over and began to drift back into slumber.

Akura was the first to wake up. She was very excited for the fight. She quickly got dressed and headed out.

The crowd was fairly large, full of stupid and mediocre demons. Akura headed all the way down to the front row seats and rested her arms on the protective, or not so protected, Akura joked to herself, bars.

"Hello folks!" The fox girl in the middle of the arena greeted, "My name is Koto, and I will be your cute, little host for this tournament." Akura laughed.

"Are you serious? Why does every competition have to have a "cute" announcer girl?" She scoffed.

"Maybe you're just jealous it isn't you up there." A rather deep and horribly familiar voice spoke behind Akura. She spun around to come face to face with her own personal hell-Toguro.

"Yo...You..." Tears began to well up in her eyes. Toguro cupped her face in his hands.

"Still beautiful, I see. Long blonde hair and those perfect, red eyes." Akura was so paralyzed with fear, she couldn't move or speak, "What's wrong, 'Kura? You use to love my touch." A disgusting smirk formed on his evil face. This broke something in her. She pulled her chin away and glared at him with so much hatred and so much pain,

"I never loved your touch."


	4. The First Fight

"Are you sure you didn't?" Toguro grinned. Akura just continued to glare. "I remember your screams… The fighting... I remember the day you tried escape actually…" She finally looked down, remembering that awful day.

"You…almost broke every bone in my body…" He had tortured her for so many years, starting from when she was five. Luckily, she escaped a couple of years ago when she was 15.

"You were only ten. If you hadn't tried to leave me, you wouldn't have had to go through that." Akura quickly wiped my tears away and smirked, looking back up at her abuser,

"How does it feel to know that every woman you ever loved left you?" Toguro immediately stopped smirking and grabbed her by the throat. She tried to scratch at his hands to make him stop, but it was no use.

"Ah, that mouth. You never knew how to control it, even when you knew it meant punishment for you." His hand gripped tighter, making her eyes bulge.

"Hey, you steroid-taking bastard, put Akura down NOW!" She tried to look for who said that, but her vision was getting dark and blurry from the lack of oxygen.

"What's this? Everybody, look in the stands! The fabulous Toguro has a pretty girl by the neck! Isn't this pre-violence beautiful!" The announcer girl, Koto, pointed to where they were as Akura was dangling hopelessly.

"Hey you, stupid fox girl! YEAH, I'M TALKING TO YOU!" The man yelled.

"AH! WH-what, sir?"

"WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM!" As the two bickered back and forth, Toguro stared at Akura, who was now unconscious. He threw her on the ground and walked over to her, everyone was silent.

"You got off easy this time, 'Kura. Don't make me hurt you again because it may be fatal next time." And with that, Toguro left.

"Akura!" Her eyes opened a little to see Juro running towards her. "Are you okay!" he asked, wrapping one arm around her waist and her arm around his neck, trying to get her to stand up.

"Yeah…" Her voice was raspy and not really clear. "Juro…I still want to see the fight."

"I shouldn't let you. I should make you go lay down…But," He looked into her eyes and blushed, she was like a daughter to him, "I'll let you. Jerk wads!" Juro yelled at two demons in the front row, "Move, or die!" The weenie demons screamed and ran away. "There we go!" He grinned happily. "I'm going to go get you water." He smiled down at his friend, wiping the leaking blood from her mouth. Akura Just smiled and nodded, and then he left.

When she finally looked at the arena, Akura couldn't help but still rub her neck and try to heal it with the mediocre healing powers Mira had taught her. That's when she noticed the teams were getting ready to fight. She scanned over the team of demons, then the Urameshi team. Akura gasped when she saw the boy with the spiky hair that she had screamed at the pervious day. Had he seen her get strangled by Toguro? Did everyone that had seen underestimate her now? She never wanted to appear weak, but when he was around, how could she not feel powerless? He made her feel like the little child he violated all over again. She felt so ashamed, but couldn't help staring at the boy, who just stared right back at her.

When Yusuke heard Toguro's name, he ran out of the entrance to the arena. Of course, the teammates followed. When they were out, Hiei saw Yusuke gawking at something in the stands. His eyes widened when he saw the same girl from yesterday being held up by her neck by Toguro. Some wolf demon was screaming at the announcer, then Toguro threw her, making it very quiet around to whole arena. Blood squirted from her mouth as she landed harshly to the ground. For an unknown reason, this enraged Hiei. "Akura!" The wolf demon screamed and quickly ran to the girl.

"That monster…" Kuwabara whispered.

"PICKING ON WOMEN NOW, YOU ASSHOLE! YOU'RE WEAK!" Yusuke screamed, still sleeping, at Toguro, who was long gone.

"That man has no pride." Kurama said, shaking his head and then looking at Akura in the stands with the utmost sympathy. The masked fighter and Hiei stayed silent.

"Okay, teams! Can we please have the team leaders decide the battles of the match? One on one or all?" Koto stated. Kuwabara tore his eyes away from the stands and supported Yusuke, who was still in a deep slumber, as they approached the arena. The wolf had helped Akura up and scared away demons for their seats. When he left her, she looked around.

'_She looks so weak…' _

'_**You wish you could fix it?'**_

'_Shut up.'_

'_**So defensive… It's okay to want to help someone.'**_

'_She doesn't need help. I need to focus on my team.' _ As Hiei was about to focus on his team, her eyes locked with his. She looked so embarrassed and in pain. He wanted to help. It wasn't right for someone as massive as Toguro to hurt someone as fragile as this girl.

"It has been decided! One on One match! Please pick your first fighter! Oh-!" Hiei stopped looking at Akura and gazed at the sight of Ziro's flaming body, completely remembering why they were there. He couldn't worry about such a baka onna. They were there to win, that's it. Not make friends or care about anyone else, just win. Hiei glared back over at the girl, who was still holding her neck.

'_She will die soon if she does not train harder.' _He looked back at his team to see Kuwabara taking the first fighter, the little child, Rinku.

"Hn. The fool might actually have a chance in winning." Hiei smirked.

Through the whole fight, Hiei tried desperately to focus on the match but couldn't help the occasional glance at Akura. She was staring too deeply in the fight to notice his looks.

'_I need to stop… The idiot might need help. I need to focus.' _ He shook his head, and once again, watched Kuwabara get beaten by a child and his yo-yo's.


End file.
